


Catalyst

by seungsols



Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - After College/University, Alternate Universe - Domestic, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Cats, Domestic, Domestic Fluff, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, M/M, Strangers to Lovers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-20
Updated: 2018-12-20
Packaged: 2019-09-23 05:17:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,967
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17074130
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/seungsols/pseuds/seungsols
Summary: Neither Junhui nor Wonwoo realized how much a single alley cat would change their lives.





	Catalyst

**Author's Note:**

  * For [mivp](https://archiveofourown.org/users/mivp/gifts).



> +5 for the punny title, am I right?

****“Shoppers, a reminder,” the intercom rang above head throughout the grocery store. “The store will be closing in fifteen minutes. Thank you.”

Wonwoo grunted as his grip on the handle of his grocery basket tightened. “Well maybe if you guys didn't reorganize the whole store, I would find my almond milk faster,” he mumbled under his breath. He was upset that not only did the store move the dairy and eggs to the back of the store, but also they discarded items that Wonwoo was used to seeing on his late-night grocery runs.

Finding his almond milk has never been so difficult. He muttered under his breath how he could just settle for regular cow or soy milk, but, no, he was determined to find _his_ milk. He eventually found it near the newly added macadamia and coconut milk and slowly walked to the register. Wonwoo chuckled as he saw his friend at the register glaring at Wonwoo for walking so slow.

“You know, you’re just the worse,” Jihoon groaned as Wonwoo walked even slower as he approached the register. Wonwoo got a kick out of it and laughed before placing the almond milk on the conveyor belt. “All that slow-mo walking for your damn nut milk?”

“For your information,” Wonwoo hummed as he watched his friend scan the milk before placing it in a plastic bag, “that nut milk is pretty damn good.” Jihoon rolled his eyes as he took Wonwoo’s card to swipe before handing his friend the receipt. “Thank you, my good sir.”

“Get the fuck out of here,” Jihoon groaned. “I want to go home.” Wonwoo laughed and saluted to his friend before grabbing his plastic bag as he walked out of the grocery store as Jihoon begrudgingly waved back.

He shivered a bit as he realized how frigid the air had become and quickly zipped up his jacket. Wonwoo whispered, “I should have gone before work,” to himself as he walked back home. He usually buys his groceries at night, because of his work schedule (and the movers that filter in and out of his place the past few weeks), but since the air was becoming cooler with winter around the corner, he might have to rethink his whole schedule.

Wonwoo was about to cross the street right in front of his apartment, when he heard something fall behind him in the dark alleyway. He turned around and blinked before standing there quietly debating in his head whether or not he should check it out. He decided to walk over cautiously, knowing that if anything were to happen, he lived a good life.

Fortunately, he didn’t see any imminent danger. Instead, he saw a cat poke its head out of a worn-down and crumbled box. Wonwoo’s heart softened and he slowly approached the cat, who hesitantly stepped back and tried to shooing Wonwoo away with its paws. “Ah, he’s scared,” Wonwoo sighed. He looked around and saw how depressing and abandoned the alley looked and pouted. “I don’t want to leave him here…”

Wonwoo knew he couldn’t just bring the frightened stray cat with him back to his place, nor could he even grab him. He knelt down and slung his backpack to the front to open it up and retrieved his thermos. Untwisting it, he put the cup down and rummaged through to find his bottle of water. He poured it into the cup and pushed it to the kitten who was still hiding from him.

“I know it’s not much,” he sighed as he pulled back after twisting the lid back on his water bottle. He stood up holding the thermos and placed the water bottle back into his backpack. “But it’s the least I can do for now.” Wonwoo smiled and bent down just enough to make direct eye contact with the cat. He pouted. “I know you’re scared, little guy, but it’s okay. I’m not here to hurt you.”

He stepped back, hoping that the cat would come out of the box, but it didn’t. He sighed and turned his back to leave the alley when he heard a soft meow. Turning around, Wonwoo saw the cat peak its head out before crawling out of the box slowly to approach the cup of water. Wonwoo grinned. He watched the cat drink the water and sighed in relief. He waved at the cat when it looked up at him. “I’ll check up on you tomorrow, okay?”

-

Junhui grunted as he impatiently waited for the elevator to open on the ground floor. He checked his watched and frowned. “Oh man, c’mon. I have a client showing up in twenty minutes.” The elevator doors opened slower than ever but Junhui sighed in relief as he strided out and out of his apartment building as he walked his usual path to work. He slept past his alarm and was in a rush this morning as a result. Normally, he wouldn’t mind so much, but he had so many clients to meet that day that he couldn’t afford any delays in his schedule.

He tapped his foot at the crosswalk right from where his building was as he was waiting for the walk sign to signal go. Junhui groaned, “I could just run it and risk it all,” he grumbled to himself, but he knew that was a high-risk, low-reward situation. He opted out. The light changed but just as Junhui was going to book it across, he heard a meow behind him.

Junhui was so shocked by the meow that he froze in his steps, but he turned around to see a cat poking its head from an alleyway. He knew it was going to be dumb to walk over to the cat, but it would leave a stain on his conscious if he didn’t. Junhui sighed and walked over to the stray but was taken back when it tried to hiss and scratch him. “Whoa, buddy, I’m not going to hurt you.” He watched as the cat ran to the nearby box that Junhui assumed was his home. He frowned. “Aw, poor little one.” Looking around he saw an empty thermos cup. “At least he drank,” Junhui whispered, “but he must be hungry.”

He crouched and grabbed the lunchbox from his messenger bag after opening it to pull out his tupperware containers. He put the lid down and placed the deli meat and banana from his lunch onto it and placed it near the empty thermos cup.

“It’s not much, but it was going to be part of my sandwich that I was going to make and fruit for the day,” he chuckled.

He got up and held the open container with bread, lettuce, and cheese separated in individual compartments and watched the cat slowly peak out in curiosity as it stared at the food for it.

Junhui smiled as he watched the cat approach the food. “Oh, good, you have the same taste as me,” he chuckled. He checked his watch and sighed. “Well, I’m five minutes late. But I guess I can let this one slide just for you, hm?” He looked down and saw the cat eating happily. He sighed in relief but pouted, realizing that the cat probably didn’t eat a decent meal in a while. “I’ll check on you later today, okay bud?” He knew the cat wasn’t going to communicate with him, especially since he was a stranger, but he hoped the cat knew that he had good intentions.

Junhui’s phone vibrated and he hissed knowing that the receptionist was calling him about his client. and waved to the cat before crossing the street that was, fortunately, giving him the right of way to run to his building. Maybe this was the universe’s way of thanking him for taking care of the cat, he thought.

 

-

 

This pattern continued for about a month or so with Wonwoo tending to the cat at night and Junhui in the morning. It never occurred to either of them that someone else was taking care of the cat.

Wonwoo always assumed that the cat rummaged through the nearby trash to get food when in reality, Junhui always packed a little snack to give to the cat on his way to his office. Even if the thought that someone else was also tending the cat, Wonwoo did find it particularly interesting that the cat found food in the dumpster in pretty good condition.

Typically every morning, Junhui found the cat with a full cup of water next to its makeshift box shelter where the cat was lying down on a sweater he hadn’t seen before. “Smart cat,” he thought aloud, unbeknownst to him that it was Wonwoo who sacrificed one of his sweaters and poured his water bottle into the cup the day before.

 

-

 

One day, Junhui was called into work for a board meeting very early in the morning. Because of that, he wasn’t able to stop by the alley and take care of the cat. This saddened him, especially because it was the highlight of his day and something to make his work schedule a bit easier to follow. In the meeting, he decided that he would make it up to the cat and go to him after five when he clocked out of work. He even wrote down in his phone to treat the cat to more food than usual.

His co-worker, Seokmin, noticed how offbeat Junhui seemed and nudged him under the table. “You okay, Jun?” he whispered.

“Do I not look okay?” Junhui questioned quietly.

“Well, you're bouncing your leg pretty fast,” Seokmin observed, “and you're drawing a bunch of cat doodles all over your paper.” In disbelief, Junhui looked down and blushed at how he was unaware of his peculiar behaviour. “Cat got your tongue?” Seokmin chuckled.

“More like the cat has my life,” Jun sighed. “It's that alley cat.”

“Oh,” Seokmin nodded in realization. “You're still taking care of it?” Junhui nodded humbly and Seokmin hummed. “Well,I don't know how much work we will have today, but when you clock out you should make it up to the cat.”

 

After a hard but fulfilling workday, Junhui clocked out and waved to his secretary before heading for the elevator. He checked his watch that read it was ten past seven and sighed. He had much more paperwork than he had originally anticipated and he felt somewhat guilty that he wasn’t able to feed the cat accordingly as he had originally planned. Junhui rushed out of the building and ran to the nearby grocery store to pick up something for the cat.

Over the course of tending to the cat, he did some research and testing to realize that the alley cat liked deli meats, especially cooked ham. Junhui was in the meat section of the store and filled his basket with about five packs of packaged cooked honey baked ham. As a treat, he got a bit of cooked chicken and turkey as well to make up for his lost time with the cat.

He didn’t realize how odd it would see that he was only buying deli meat and nothing else as the cashier, Jihoon, was scanning the meats while glancing at Junhui with a judgemental look. “Do you just eat the meats by itself?” the cashier asked.

“Huh?” Junhui blinked at such an odd question.

“You’re just buying meat,” Jihoon observed. “No bread… lettuce… mayonnaise… not even some sliced cheese…”

“Oh,” Junhui looked at the bags filled with the deli meat in realization. “It’s not for me… it’s a gift for someone.”

Even more confused, the cashier just slowly nodded and accepted that maybe Junhui has weird cravings or weird friends or possibly both. After Junhui paid, the cashier handed over the plastic bags and watched as Junhui rushed out of the store. “He reminds me of Wonwoo,” he mumbled.

 

Rushing over to the alley to see the cat, Junhui whined to himself as he kept waiting for the crosswalk sign to turn green. He realized how odd it probably seemed to be tapping his foot impatiently at the corner of the sidewalk holding plastic bags in each hand filled with deli meats, but Junhui could care less: his priority was the cat.

After about a lengthy ten minute walk, he managed to make it to the block where the alley cat was located. However, he was surprised to hear the cat meowing from afar since he knows the cat only meows when someone is near it.

Cautiously, he walked over and peaked into the alley surprised to see someone else tending to the cat. Junhui was held back on account he believed he was the only one who even noticed the cat in the first place. Not wanting to make it awkward, he coughed to get the other’s attention.

Wonwoo turned his head and looked up from his squatting position to see Junhui staring at him with his plastic bags. He himself laid his work bag on the other wall to get closer to the cat as he soon realized Junhui was also taking care of the cat. They stared at each other for a moment before Wonwoo coughed back to break the awkward silence. “Uh… hey there,” Wonwoo stated.

Junhui, still frozen in his position, blinked. “H-hey.”

Unfortunately, there was no sense in masking how awkward and surprising this whole situation came to be, but the two slowly began to accept it and break out of the worry when they heard the cat meow and boldly walked out of its box, something both of them have rarely seen.

Junhui walked over and quickly knelt down near Wonwoo and placed the bags of meat beside him. The cat nuzzled its cheek against Junhui’s touch before going to Wonwoo and doing the same thing as well. “Guess it likes us both,” Junhui smiled. He looked over at Wonwoo who lovingly stroked the cat’s head. “Junhui.”

“Wonwoo. Guess you’re the other caretaker, huh?” Wonwoo chuckled. Junhui chuckled as well as he nodded. “Well, good to know that. I really thought the cat was lucky in getting well-preserved food in the trash,” he joked. “At least I have my answer now.”

The cat shifted back to Junhui and tapped his knee with its paw, making Junhui smile in relief. “Yeah, it’s just good to know that someone does the nightly shift. I usually take care of him before I go to work.”

“Oh, I tend to him after work. Where do you work?”

“You know that mental health clinic across the street and down a few blocks? I work there.”

“Wow, as a therapist?” Wonwoo asked. Junhui nodded as he kept showing affection to the cat. “That’s pretty cool. I work a bit further away from here at a book publishing company as an editor, but I come here since this is the nearest grocery store… despite it being quite a distance from my apartment.”

“Oh, wow,” Junhui whistled, “I thought you lived nearby here and this was like you tending to the neighborhood cat.”

“Well, I used to,” Wonwoo hummed, smiling when the cat came back to him for affection and attention, “but I just recently moved to that apartment complex that’s near that stationery store and bus station-”

Junhui blinked. “Oh, wait… I live there,” he stated. The two looked at each other perplexed before snickering again. “Boy, I can’t believe this is all pure coincidence.” Wonwoo nodded in agreement before both of their heads turned to see the cat meowing at the both of them. “Guess it wants both of our attentions now.”

“Seems like it.” Wonwoo glanced over at Junhui in his peripheral and hummed. “Have you tried to bring it out of the alley? I tried once but it seemed comfortable here by itself.”

“I tried too. But I guess it likes being out here.” Junhui felt the buzz from his phone in his back pocket and sighed. “I should probably get going… I have a bit of paperwork to fill out for one of my clients.” He stood up and saw Wonwoo stand up to grab his work bag and sling it over his shoulder.

“Me too. Need to email edited drafts to my writer. We can head home together if you want.”

“Sounds good to me,” Junhui nodded. “It’d be nice to finally have company on the walk back.”

As the two of them turned to leave the alleyway after saying their goodbyes to the cat, they both heard the cat meow. Junhui turned around first followed by Wonwoo as they saw the cat walking towards them, a sign that it wanted to follow them. They blinked at it before blinking at each other.

“We can’t just leave him here… it’s suppose to get colder this week,” Wonwoo said.

Junhui nodded. “Well… since we live in the same building… do you think we can take him in? We could just switch him off between the two of us and we don't have any building restrictions on pets as far as I'm concerned,” he suggested. “Plus, my friend is a vet so he can run tests and make sure it’s healthy and everything.”

“Wow, you should have said that earlier,” Wonwoo laughed. “Yeah, let’s do that. I can bring the box and items if you want to carry the-” He stopped mid-sentence as he saw Junhui rush back and put all the belongings inside the cat’s box along with the plastic bags of meat on his own accord. Wonwoo snapped out of it when he caught himself staring at Junhui, realizing how odd that was before he kneeled down and carried the cat comfortably in his arms.

Junhui walked over carrying everything and smiled. “Ready?”

“Yeah,” Wonwoo smiled back. The two began walking back to their apartment still chatting and getting to know each other as the cat fell asleep in Wonwoo’s arms knowing it was in two pairs of good hands.

 

-

 

Junhui was nervously bouncing his leg on the floor after adjusting himself in his seat. He checked his wrist watch about every five seconds anxiously, as if looking at it were to speed up time. He heard tapping in the plastic kennel him and Wonwoo bought the day before and leaned down to the cat's eye level.

“Don't worry, Mittens,” he smiled reassuringly, “Hao's a good guy. He won't hurt you.” He was sure that the cat (that him and Wonwoo decided to name Mittens on account of its paws and half a bit of its legs were coloured white while the rest of its body was black) understood him since he purred and lied down nonchalantly.

 

It's been about a month or so since Wonwoo and Junhui found Mittens and they were certainly grateful that not only did they have a cat, but also it gave them a chance to get to know each other. They were basically makeshift parents for the cat as one would drop it off to the other's apartment before going to work or picking Mittens up after work.

Junhui didn't realize it, but Wonwoo picked up on his bad habit of skipping breakfast and always made an extra bowl of oatmeal in a thermos for Junhui to take with him to work. Wonwoo, unknowingly, didn't realize how much he dozes off while waiting for Junhui to come back from work (since Jun has a more hectic and lengthier work schedule compared to him) until Junhui gave Wonwoo a spare key to come to his apartment so he didn't have to stay up to wait for Junhui to pick Mittens up. (Sometimes he wakes up and finds a blanket covering his body as well, courtesy of Junhui.)

It was a good system and the two were quick to adapt. They also grew closer from acquaintances to nice neighbours to friends as they began hanging out more during the weekends and their free time. Unbeknownst to them, Mittens much preferred when he was with both of them rather than either Wonwoo or Junhui.

In fact, Mittens went out of the way to cause a disruption just to bring the two together sometimes. Once, Mittens grabbed one of Wonwoo's socks from the laundry basket as he was folding his clothes and ran out of the apartment door (that Wonwoo leaves open sometimes) right into Junhui's apartment as Junhui was opening the door to head out for a jog. Wonwoo chased after Mittens and blinked when he saw Junhui holding Mittens with the sock in his mouth.

“I'm guessing this is your sock?” Junhui chuckled.

Wonwoo blushed sheepishly. “Y-yeah, that's mine…” he quickly took the sock that Mittens willingly released from his mouth. “Are you going out?”

“Just for a jog… maybe a walk since I'm kind of lazy,” Junhui snickered. “Do… do you want to join me? We can bring Mittens. Or are you busy with laundry?”

“I can do laundry later,” Wonwoo responded, a bit more enthusiastically than he had hoped. “Let me just grab my shoes and my keys.”

Junhui nodded and watched Wonwoo walk back to his place before Mittens meowed for his attention. “Well, aren't you a cheeky cat,”Junhui laughed. “Or do you just want your owners to spend more time with you together?” Junhui cooed when Mittens meowed again as if he was saying ‘yes.’

 

It was a few minutes before Junhui was called and he carried the travel kennel with him around the front desk to the back room where Minghao was waiting for them. He smiled when he saw his friend and gave him a hug after placing the travel kennel down. “It's been a while,” Minghao hummed. He saw how Junhui seemed flustered at the statement and tried to explain himself. “Relax,” he laughed. “I know how busy our schedules are. But we should go out some time. Maybe drinks?”

“Sounds good,” Junhui smiled.

Minghao opened the door and saw Mittens shyly walk out and onto the table. “I didn't know you had a cat,” he commented as he began his check-up routine.

“Ah… well, technically he's not mine. We found it in an alley and I was hoping you could see if he has any health issues or whatnot so we can properly adopt him?”

After listening to the cat's heartbeat, Minghao pulled his stethoscope out of his ears. “Sure, that's not a problem. Just leave him overnight so I can do all the tests, okay?” Junhui nodded. “And what do you mean _we_?” Minghao hummed.

“Oh… uh… me and-”

“Your partner, perhaps?” suggested Minghao.

“N-no!” Junhui hesitantly proclaimed. “We're just apartment neighbours really. I didn't even know we lived in the same apartment until we met while taking care of Mittens.”

Chuckling, Minghao just nodded at Junhui who made it fairly obvious where his feelings were with his said neighbour. “Well, that's nice then… I suppose. And a cute name too, I might add.” Minghao walked over to one of the other tables to pull out a few files from the drawer before walking back. “If you and your _neighbour_ could fill those out for me to ensure you have joint custody by tomorrow, Mittens is all yours.”

 

-

 

Junhui opened the door of his apartment to find Wonwoo passed out on his couch. He closed the door behind him quietly as he carefully took off his shoes to place on the shoe rack before sliding on his house slippers. He walked over to the living room and placed the folder of paperwork on the coffee table gently before tiptoeing to the kitchen to make two cups of decaf coffee.

Slowly, Wonwoo's eyes open at the sound of the coffee machine starting. He stretched the couch's length before he slowly sat up and hummed with his eyes closed as the aroma of the Arabica beans filled the air. Sitting up straight, he saw the folder of paperwork on the coffee table and pulled it over closer to him before he opened it up.

“It's for Mittens,” Junhui hummed as he made his way to the couch with a mug in each hand. Wonwoo smiled and pulled the coasters over for Junhui to put the mugs on. Junhui smiled, a gesture that said ‘thank you’ as he did so and sat next to Wonwoo.

Looking into the steaming mugs, Wonwoo blinked. “Did you already blend in the milk and sugar?”

Junhui nodded as he was shuffling through the papers. “Yeah, I put half & half in mine and almond milk in yours,” he replied nonchalantly. Wonwoo's eyes widened at the statement. He knew Junhui doesn't usually buy almond milk, that's usually what Wonwoo uses though. “It's quite a few documents, but we can probably finish it by tonight.”

Wonwoo blew on his mug and took a light sip, smiling as it warmed up his body. “Sounds good to me.” Junhui handed Wonwoo a pen from the side table and froze a bit when he felt Wonwoo shift to move closer to Junhui. They haven't really sat this close to each other before, Junhui realized. However, he felt no discomfort with it. In fact, he was pretty happy about it.

“Geez, these forms are so tedious,” Wonwoo chuckled as he skimmed through his pile of papers. “It's like we're adopting a child together or something,” he commented. Both of them stopped moving after realizing what Wonwoo had just said. It's true, they basically _are_ co-parents to Mittens at this point now.

The atmosphere was ambiguously quiet as the two were filling out their own forms and comparing their responses ever so often. Junhui decided to break the silence. “So… after work tomorrow, do you want to pick him up together?” he asked. Wonwoo looked at him and Junhui wasn't sure if it was the coffee or the twinkle in Wonwoo's eyes that made Junhui's cheeks warm. “I mean… he seems to like it best when we're together.”

“Yeah, that's a good idea,” Wonwoo smiled warmly. “After all, we are co-parents to him,” he chuckled.

 

-

 

Wonwoo woke up first when he heard his phone alarm go off. He quickly reached over to the coffee table to grab it and turn it off. He stretched but instantly stopped moving when he heard snoring on the other side of the couch. Wonwoo leaned up on his elbows to see that Junhui was sharing the couch and blanket with him. He blushed and gasped audibly but quickly covered his mouth to not wake up Junhui. He shook out of it and quickly pulled his legs away from Junhui's arms and stood up on the wooden floors before checking the time.

After tucking Junhui into the blanket, Wonwoo cleaned up the empty mugs from last night and organized the filled out papers back into the manila folder before heading back to his apartment to get ready for work. Before he left to run out of the building, however, he used his spare key to come back to Junhui's place to leave a thermos of oatmeal on the coffee table.

-

 

Wonwoo rubbed his temples as he glared over at his client right next to him. “Hyung, it’s very simple. Just change stormtrooper to storm trooper.”

“I’m telling you, it’s a single word!” Jisoo argued. “And I only wrote it down once, there’s no way that a reader would even know about it unless they’re strangely and extremely into the correct grammatics of a sci-fi movie characters.”

“Did you at least read my email about the plot?”

“I did… but let me pull it up again,” Jisoo coughed as he slid over his laptop and opened a new tab to his email account while Wonwoo was trying to organize the drafted sheets of paper accordingly. “ _As we crack open Changbin’s philosophy and contrast it with Yongbok’s more connected sense of living,_ ” Jisoo read, “ _I also think there’s a lot of room to look more at the question of the nobility, and frankly the epic sexiness, of sacrifice/violence versus the unsung struggle of illness; in short: what constitutes martyrdom?_ ” After blinking at the screen, he looked at Wonwoo and frowned. “I hate when you’re right and use really pretty sentences to prove it.”

Wonwoo snickered and started flipping through the pages to find the chapter he was referring to in the email. “This section isn’t bad though,” he hummed, “you just need to elaborate more on a few details for the readers to understand what’s going on in your head during this scene.”

Jisoo tilted his head and leaned his elbow on the table as he swiveled his chair to face Wonwoo. “You sound a lot happier,” he observed. “Just last week, you were marking up my manuscript with red pen correcting everything.”

“Well, we’ve gotten farther in the writing process, that’s all,” Wonwoo answered.

No, that’s not it,” Jisoo hummed as he straightened himself up on his chair while Wonwoo looked at him confused while putting the chapter pages on the table. “By now, you would be chugging your coffee and mumbling how we should have scrapped the whole thing. And this can’t only be because of that cat you found in the alley… that happened months ago.”

Quietly, Wonwoo avoided eye contact with Jisoo and reached over for his tumbler full of the hot milk tea that Junhui recommended to him the other week. “Well… we made a lot of progress with your book and-”

“Are you seeing someone?” Jisoo interrupted Wonwoo’s train of thought. He smiled when he saw Wonwoo tilt his tumblr at a sharper angle to intake more of the beverage. “Oh, so you are.”

“I am not,” Wonwoo denied after he finished the entire drink and placed it back on the conference table. He pouted when Jisoo just hummed with a knowing look on his face. “I hate when you’re right and use that fucking face to prove it,” he grumbled.

“Who is it? Maybe it’ll inspire more of my works,” Jisoo laughed.

Wonwoo sighed and leaned back in his chair while twiddling his thumbs nervously. “It’s my neighbour… the one who was also taking care of the cat,” he admitted. “We’re going to drop off the paperwork tonight and pick-up Mittens so that we legally and officially own him.” Jisoo cooed but Wonwoo looked over with a pout. “We aren’t dating though.”

“Not yet at least,” Jisoo hummed.

 

“You know, Hyung,” Seokmin hummed after taking a sip of his americano. Junhui looked up from the pasta bowl he was eating and wiped his mouth before taking a sip of his own drink. “You seem a lot less stressed,” he observed. “Not just today… but… lately.”

“Really?” Junhui blinked surprised.

“Yeah, and it’s not because the workload got lighter or anything. In fact, we’ve been getting a lot more clients and having a bunch of meetings and schedule conventions the past month, but you seem calmer than ever. How do you do that and where can I get that?”

Junhui laughed as Seokmin smiled at a job-well-done at making his friend laugh. “It’s nothing, really. Actually, maybe it’s the cat.”

Seokmin shook his head as he was stirring the soup in his bowl before blowing on the spoonful he picked up. “There’s no way it’s _just_ the cat unless the cat was some magical being that made all your stress and problems disappear,” he joked before eating his soup. “No, there’s got to be _something_ else.”

Blushing, Junhui went back to his pasta and put a heaping forkful into his mouth. “More like a _someone_ ,” he mumbled quietly.

 

-

 

Wonwoo was waiting by the corner between the cafe and the second to last bus station down the strip. Junhui told him to meet him at this exact location so they could walk together to pick up Mittens. As he was scrolling down through his social media feed on his phone, Wonwoo couldn’t help but realize just how fast his heart was beating. He was just meeting up with Junhui—his neighbour—and picking up Mittens—a cat that they both agreed to take care of together. Honestly, just admitting that to himself was hard enough on account how he really didn’t expect to fall for Junhui this hard.

He gasped to himself when he saw Junhui in the corner of his right eye walking towards him and quickly tried to regain his composure. He waved at Junhui who smiled at him. “Hey,” Junhui waved back. “Ready?”

With a nod, they both started walking to the veterinarians. They caught each other up on how their days went, both ignoring the fact that they were sharing a couch and blanket together just that morning since they were flustered and in denial that it had happened. Junhui couldn’t help but look at Wonwoo in admiration for talking about his editing work and how far he’s come with Jisoo as his client. He also couldn’t help but think at how good Wonwoo was at washing the dishes, folding his laundry, vacuuming his carpets, and especially taking care of Mittens.

It’s true, it really is as if they were sharing a child as co-parents. Nay, as _literal_ parents. And as such, Junhui thought, it would only make sense that they stay close together.

Wonwoo opened the door for Junhui, to which Junhui thanked him as they headed inside. The receptionist smiled at them and motioned them back to where they presumed Minghao and Mittens were waiting for them. As they turned the corner, they gasped when they saw Mittens running down the hallway to them while Minghao came walking over calmly with a filled paper bag and the kennel crate. “Hey,” Minghao smiled. “He’s been waiting for you two. Specifically, just the two of you. Together.”

Junhui, who was kneeling down to Mittens level to pet his head, looked up. “Both of us?”

Minghao nodded. “I tried showing him old photos of you that I have on my phone to calm him down when I had to comb his fur but it seems that it wasn’t enough.” Looking over, he smiled at Wonwoo. “You must be Wonwoo… the _neighbour_ ,” he grinned. “Here,” he said as he handed over the paper bag. “Just a few toys and supplies you guys will need for taking care of him properly. Don’t worry, it’s on me.”

“Thanks, Hao,” Junhui smiled as he stood up with Mittens in his arms. Mittens leaned over and licked Wonwoo’s hand as a sign of attention. Wonwoo snickered and patted his hat, to which Mittens purred. They all cooed and thanked Minghao for his work as Junhui handed over the papers from his backpack.

After bidding a farewell, they were on their way home. Mittens was nuzzled into Wonwoo’s chest as Junhui was now the one holding the bag and kennel. Junhui couldn’t help but melt at the sight of Wonwoo holding Mittens. He coughed to get Wonwoo’s attention as Mittens fell asleep. “Hey… Wonwoo?”

“Yes?” Wonwoo answered as he looked up and made direct eye contact with Junhui. It was silent for a moment as they held that look while still walking on the sidewalk, surprisingly not running into anything. “What is it?”

“I was thinking,” Junhui began as he looked down at his feet nervously. “Maybe… Well, since we’re basically Mitten’s official parents now, maybe we should… stay closer together.” He looked up at Wonwoo who blinked at him confused. “You know… share an apartment… together,” blushed Junhui.

“Oh,” Wonwoo blinked before blushing as well. They continued to walk in silence—a somewhat awkward one as they were both processing what had just happened—before Wonwoo coughed. “Ah… that sounds like a good idea. Y’know… for Mitten’s sake.”

Junhui nodded slowly before grinning widely. “Of course. Anything for _our_ Mittens.”

**Author's Note:**

> Hello, I hope this suffices! Tried to make it SUPER FLUFFY as per your request, hehe. Honestly, such a fan of this ship and I'm so glad you are as well so it's a win-win!! Shoutout to the mods for making this possible for everyone, all your hard work truly paid off and I'm very happy to be a part of all of this. Also shout out to the besties and girlfriend for motivating me and beta-ing ♡   
>  Also, the scene where Wonwoo and Jisoo are reading the email is derived from [ this John Green video made in 2011](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLwJT-HhhB0), ehe.


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